It was little more than formality Monday when announced Joe Dumars will no longer be president of basketball operations for the Detroit Pistons.

And it is a moot point he is sticking around as an “advisor.”

The cliché most often used in these circumstances is the need to go in “a different direction.”

Like most of these instances, it wasn’t so much Dumars resigned or was fired as it just happened.

The once mighty Pistons have been reduced to irrelevant status in a town they ruled not long ago.

Where Dumars had the Midas touch early in his tenure as a front office executive, he swung and missed with unrelenting consistency lately.

This was like Strike 10…and you’re out. Dumars had plenty of chances. He simply wasn’t getting it done.

But in reflection, this shouldn’t be so much about what went wrong for Dumars at the end as what went right the many years before.

Dumars was the first-round draft choice of the Pistons in 1985, but he was not an early draft pick – 18th overall. He was a relatively unknown college player from McNeese State in Louisiana, who forged a Hall of Fame career with the Pistons.

Isiah Thomas got more headlines at the time, but it was Dumars who shutdown Michael Jordan. He was a clutch shooter. On a fiery squad that loved the fight – often literally – Dumars was the perfect measure of calm, cool, unquestionable effort and ability to perform at his best at the biggest moments.

There was a time, later, when it looked like the Pistons might have the next Michael Jordan. Grant Hill was that good when he stepped into the league with the Pistons out of Duke, and did bring the franchise a measure of respectability in the 1990s.

Then Hill decided he wanted to leave, and turned his back on the Pistons.

Dumars was at the helm when the Pistons negotiated the sign-and-trade of Hill to Orlando, which brought Ben Wallace to Auburn Hills.

It is laughable, as some have suggested, that Dumars just lucked into acquiring arguably the best defensive player of his generation.

Nobody could plainly see it coming, but if that was the case, Dumars sure had a lot of luck the next several years. Jerry Stackhouse was the Pistons’ best player, and they had just made the playoffs, when Dumars traded him for Richard Hamilton. It was not a popular deal at the time, but it was golden.

Chauncey Billups was starting to fall into journeyman status as a relatively young player when Dumars signed him – and he became a star.

Dumars’ timing with the Rasheed Wallace trade was impeccable. Dumars got blasted for firing Rick Carlisle as head coach, but turning to Larry Brown was clearly the right decision.

Dumars has been blasted regularly for his poor drafts, but taking Tayshaun Prince late in the first round was a gem.

This is what Dumars has been a part of with the Pistons: Back-to-back world championships as a player during the NBA’s salad days of Bird, Magic, Jordan and Hakeem, and blowing up the Kobe-Shaq Lakers in the 2000s as an executive.

The Pistons went to the Eastern Conference finals six straight times. They went to the NBA finals twice. They did it with a team pieced together strictly based on astute moves by Dumars.

While there is no sugar-coating Dumars blowing the second overall draft pick and selecting Darko Milicic, or changing coaches with alarming regularity, or the last several seasons, what should be noted is what the Pistons would have been if it weren’t for him.

They probably would be seeking their first NBA championship.

Joe Dumars is a big Detroit success story, who will always be fondly remembered in this town.